The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria opens with these words: "We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria... do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves the following Constitution." It is a powerful opening. There is just one problem. No Nigerian voted on it.
The constitution was written and promulgated by the military government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar as it prepared to hand over power to a civilian administration. There was no constituent assembly of elected representatives, no referendum and no public ratification process. The document was drafted, approved and signed by a military regime, then handed to civilians as the foundation of their new democracy.
This matters because the constitution is not just a legal document. It determines how power is shared, what rights citizens have, how elections are conducted, and how leaders are held accountable. Every law passed, every court judgment delivered, and every election conducted in Nigeria since 1999 rests on this foundation. When the rulebook itself is flawed, it is worth asking how much of what we call governance is built on solid ground.